Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife Part 3

Shelves are better than closets for the keeping of the bed linen. It is a handy thing to have a separate linen closet in the house, but this is not essential. The sewing-room of the mother is a suitable place for keeping the linen. Shelves are preferable to closets for this purpose.

There should also be a medicine closet or locker in the mother's room which will be handy in case of sudden illness among the children.

In view of the importance of sanitation, more thought than is ordinarily allotted to it should be given to the lavatory. Where there is room to spare, it is best to have the bath separate from the toilet, in order to prevent inconvenience in use. There should be a basin and toilet upon the ground floor, and a bathroom and toilet upon the sleeping floor.

The walls of the lavatory should be tiled, or, if this is too expensive, they should be covered with water-proof paper. All toilet arrangements should be systematically kept clean, and the necessary supplies at all times provided.

Piazzas may be made to add no less to the utility than to the beauty and comfort of the house. A lower back piazza, covered with vines, is the ideal place in summer for eating and such heating labors as ironing.

When thoroughly secured from intrusion, an upper balcony furnishes the best of sleeping quarters for one wise and brave enough to scout the superst.i.tion of the bad effects of night air. Many persons of delicate health, even consumptives, have been restored to vigorous strength by sleeping in such a place, not only in summer but throughout the winter, save in beating storms.

Closely conjoined with forethought for utility in the planning of a house is forethought for beauty. It is well to have an artistic imagination in visualizing, as it were, the "hominess" of the house as it will appear after its rawness has been mellowed by time, and its forms have been endeared by a.s.sociation. This imagination is specially essential in the planting of trees, arrangement of flower gardens, the choice of the kind of enclosure, whether hedge or fence, and, in general, all that is known under the name of landscape gardening.

The housekeeper's work is greatly dependent upon the kind of water supply available for the house. In cities and towns the kind of supply is fixed for her, but in the country she is afforded her freedom of choice. She has a choice of water from wells or springs, which is more or less "hard," that is, impregnated with lime, and water collected from rain or melting snow. For household purposes rainwater is the more desirable, and, when properly filtered and kept in clean cisterns protected from the larvae of mosquitoes and other disease-bearing insects, it is also the best for drinking purposes. To one accustomed to drinking hard water from a well or spring, rain water is a little unpalatable, but after he is accustomed to its use he will prefer it.

It is always wise to secure an a.n.a.lysis of the drinking water of the house, since water reputed pure because of its clearness and coldness is as apt as any other to be contaminated. Where soft water is not available for household use, hard water may be softened by the addition to it of pearline or soda, or by boiling, in the latter case the lime in it being precipitated to the bottom of the kettle or boiler.

When well water is used for drinking some knowledge of the geology of the home grounds is essential. Thus, because the top of a well is on higher ground than the cess-pool is no reason for a.s.suming that the contents of the latter may not seep into the water, for the inclination of the strata of the rocks may be in a contrary direction to that of the surface of the ground.

When filters and strainers are used they should be carefully cleaned at regular intervals, since if they are permitted to acc.u.mulate impurities they become a source of contamination instead of its remedy. Every once in a while the housekeeper should take off the strainers from the faucets and boil them.

There are many excellent systems for obtaining water power for the house in the country, each of which has its special advantages. The pumping of water to a tank at the top of the house by a windmill is that most commonly used. This is the cheapest method, but the most unsightly.

Small kerosene or hot-air engines may be employed for the power at very slight cost, and will prove useful for other purposes, such as sawing wood or even operating the sewing-machines. Owing to the many inventions for isolated lighting plants by acetylene and other kinds of gas, dwellers in the country have virtually as free a choice of illumination as the people in towns and cities.

Great caution is necessary in the use of any form of illuminating gas, since all produce asphyxiation. Accordingly, all gas fixtures of the house should be regularly inspected to see that there is no escape of the subtile, destructive fluid. The odor of escaping gas which is so unpleasant is really a blessing, in that it informs the householder of his danger. A c.o.c.k that turns completely around and, after extinguishing the light, permits the escape of the gas, is more dangerous than a poisonous serpent. Yet there may be nothing radically wrong with this fixture, and the use of the screwdriver may make it as good as new.

Gas should never be turned low when there is a draught in the room, nor allowed to burn near hanging draperies. Care should always be taken in turning out a gas-stove or a drop-light to do so at the fixture and not at the burner. This is not alone safer, but it keeps the rubber tube from acquiring a disagreeable odor from the gas that has been left in it.

Great economy in the consumption of gas may be secured by the use of Welsbach and other incandescent burners. Where these are not employed, care should be taken to select the most economical kind of gas tips, and to see that when these become impaired by use they are replaced.

In the large cities there is constant complaint of defective gas-meters, so much so that inspectors have been appointed to correct this abuse.

It has been found, however, that many complaints have been unfounded because the housewives were not able properly to read the meter.

Directions how to do this will therefore be found useful. A gas-meter has three dials marking tip to 100,000 feet, 10,000 feet, and 1,000 feet respectively. The figures on the second dial are arranged in opposite order from those on the first and third dials, and this often leads to an error in reckoning. However, there should be no trouble in setting down the figures indicated by the pointer on each dial. We first set down the figure indicated upon the first dial in the units place of a period of three places, then that indicated upon the second dial in the tens place, and then that indicated upon the third dial in the hundreds place. To these we add two ciphers, to obtain the number of feet of gas that has been burned since the meter was set at zero on the three dials.

From this number we subtract the total of feet burned at the time when the preceding gas bill was rendered. This is generally called on the bill "present state of meter." The result of the subtraction will be the amount of gas that has been burned since the last bill was rendered.

For example:

95,300, amount indicated on dial.

82,700, amount marked "present state of meter" on preceding gas bill.

------ 12,600, amount of gas for which current bill is rendered.

Equal care must be exercised when kerosene is used for illumination, since, while it is not so dangerous directly to life, it is the chief source of the destruction of property. Accordingly the nature of kerosene and the way it illuminates is a profitable subject of study if we would prevent destructive fires. Really, we do not burn the oil, but the gas that arises from the oil when liberated by the burning wick and becomes incandescent when fed by the oxygen of the air. While kerosene requires a high temperature for combustion, it is closely related to other products of coal oil, such as naphtha and gasoline, which become inflammable at a low heat and are therefore very dangerous. Since the cheap grades of kerosene approach these products in quality, care should be taken to see that it is of high "proof" in order to prevent explosions. The proof required of kerosene differs in various States; that in some is as low as 100 degrees Fahrenheit, that is, the temperature at which the oil will give off vapors that will ignite.

This is too low a proof, for such a degree of temperature is quite common in the household. It is safe only to use that kerosene which is at least 140 degrees proof, for then, even though the oil is spilled, there is little danger that it will ignite except in the immediate presence of flame. There is no danger at all in soaking wood with this kind of oil in a stove or grate wherein the fire has gone out.

To test kerosene, put a thermometer into a cup partially filled with cold water, and add boiling water until the mercury stands at 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Then take out the thermometer and pour two teaspoonfuls of kerosene into the cup and pa.s.s over it the flame of a candle. If the oil ignites, it is unsafe.

In order to prevent the flame from running down into the lamp and causing an explosion, the wick should be soft, filling the burner completely. The highest efficiency in the form of illumination is obtained by round burners, especially those in lamps which admit air to the inside of the wick and so induce the largest possible amount of combustion. Such a lamp produces quite a high degree of heat, and will answer the purpose of an oil-stove in a small room.

Contrary to the popular idea, wicks should be carefully trimmed with scissors rather than with a match or other instrument. In extinguishing a lamp one should first turn down the wick and blow across the chimney, never down the chimney.

Owing to the fact that the wick is constantly bringing up oil by capillary attraction, whether it is lighted or unlighted, lamps in which the wicks have not been cared are kept continually greasy. In fact, a lamp that is greasy or that gives out a bad odor is one that has not been properly cared. With due attention, lamps are as clean and handy a means of illumination as any other form.

Candles, that are now used chiefly for decorative purposes, may still be practically employed for carrying light about the house. The danger from a falling candle carried by a child up to bed is not nearly so great as that which may result from either spilt oil from a broken lamp or the cutting gla.s.s of its chimney.

To those who live in an old house, all the foregoing advice should prove a source of helpfulness in making the best of the old home, rather than of dissatisfaction with its seeming shortcomings. There are many simple, inexpensive ways of making it conform to the model house. Expense need only be incurred in sanitary improvement, such as the better drainage of the cellar, enabling it to be utilized for purposes which now crowd the "work-rooms" of the home, and the alterations of the windows to permit better lighting and ventilation. Very often a room can be made to exchange purposes by a simple transference of furniture, thus saving the housekeeper steps. A woodhouse can be converted into a summer kitchen, and the old one, during this season, used as a dining-room, though it may be found even pleasanter to eat out of doors under an arbor or on a wide piazza. A porch may be part.i.tioned off into a laundry, and the attic ceiled and part.i.tioned for use as a bedroom. Very often an old boxed-off stairway, built in the days when it was thought unseemly to show a connection with the upper bedrooms, can be relieved of its door and walls, to the increase of s.p.a.ce in the lower room, and of the beauty of its appearance. Indeed, as a rule, there are too many doors in an old house. Some of these can be altered into open arched entrances, making one large commodious room out of two little inconvenient ones. Unused out-buildings can be turned into playrooms for the children, and even sleeping quarters. All these are changes that make for the beauty no less than the utility of home, as proved by the fact that many artists, especially those who have studied abroad where old country houses are more or less of this unconventional character, go into the country and alter in this fashion old and even abandoned houses into houses admired for their charming individuality. Ill.u.s.trations of such "hermitages"

frequently appear in the magazines, and may be studied for suggestions.

Sometimes the alteration is of the exterior only. The repainting in a proper color, or the simple creosote staining of a weather-beaten house, with the addition of a rustic porch or the breaking of a corner bedroom into a balcony, will sometimes so transform an old house that it looks as if it were a new creation.

CHAPTER VI

FURNITURE AND DECORATION

The Qualities to Be Sought in Furniture--Home-made Furniture--Semi-made Furniture--Good Furniture as an Investment--Furnishing and Decorating the Hall--The Staircase--The Parlor--Rugs and Carpets--Oriental Rugs--Floors--Treatment of Hardwood--Of Other Wood--How to Stain a Floor--Filling as a Floor Covering.

Necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, And Luxury the accomplished sofa last.

WILLIAM COWPER--_The Task._

Utility, comfort and elegance are, as Cowper shows, the three successive purposes for which furniture was designed. And to-day the order of development remains also the order of importance. The first things to be desired in any article of furniture are durability and simple application to its purpose. These being found, a person naturally looks to see if the use of them will contribute to his physical pleasure as well as his convenience, that the back of a chair is the right height and curvature to fit his back, and the seat is not so deep as to strain his legs; that the table or desk is one he can spread his legs under in natural fashion, and rest his elbows upon with ease; in short, that the furniture conforms to his bodily requirements, as the chair and bed of the "wee teenty bear" suited exactly the little old woman of Southey's tale. Last of all, the aesthetic pleasure, the appreciation of beauty by the mind, decides the choice in cases of equal utility and comfort.

The artistic considerations are so many that furniture has become a branch of art, like sculpture or painting, with a large literature and history of its own.

Since most authorities on the subject largely ignore the questions of utility and comfort, devoting themselves to the questions of aesthetic style, it will be useful to our purpose here to confine the discussion to the neglected qualities. As a rule, a durable, useful, and comfortable article is a beautiful one. At least it has the beauty of "grace," by which terms the old writers on aesthetics characterized perfect adaptation to purpose, and the beauty of what they called "homeliness," or, as we would now say, since this term has been perverted, of "hominess," the suggestion of adding to the pleasure of the household.

The quality of "hominess" is greatly increased in an article of furniture by a frank look or "home-made" appearance. There is no more delightful occupation for the leisure hours of a man or woman, and no more useful training for a boy or girl, than the making of simple articles of home furniture. Really, the first article of furniture which should be brought into the house is a well-equipped tool-chest, and the first room which should be fitted up is the workshop. A vast amount of labor will be saved thereby in unpacking, adjusting, repairing, and polishing the old and the new household articles, so that life in the new home be begun under the favorable auspices of the great household deity, the G.o.ddess of Order. When it is further considered that often small repairs made by a carpenter cost more than a new article, the tool-chest will be valued by the family as a most profitable investment.

If it is not possible to procure the proper materials and tools for making the entire article, some part of the work, the shaping, and certainly the staining and polishing, can be done at home. If the visitor does not recognize the home quality in such an article, the maker does, and will always have a pride and affection for it.

Many furniture manufacturers give in their catalogues designs of semi-made or "knock together" furniture, that is, the parts of tables, chairs, etc., cut out and planed, which it is intended that the purchaser put together himself. These, as a rule, are made of good material befitting the hand workmanship which will be put upon them, and are offered at a considerable reduction from the price asked for ready-made furniture of the same material.

Furniture stains of excellent quality are found in every hardware store and paint shop, which can easily be applied by the merest amateur.

It is never wise to buy flimsy furniture, however cheap. As a rule, there is too much furniture in the American home. It is better to get along with a few good, durable articles, even though a little expensive, than with a profusion of inferior ones. These soon reveal their "cheap and nasty qualities," are in constant need of repair, and quickly descend from the place of honor in the parlor to be endured a while in the living room, then abused in the kitchen, and, finally, burnt as fuel. Good wood and leather, however, are long in becoming shabby, and even then require only a little attention to be restored to good condition. When it is considered that in furniture there is virtually no monopoly of design or invention, and one therefore pays for material and labor alone, and compet.i.tion has reduced these to the lowest terms, the purchaser is certain to get the worth of his money when he pays a higher price for durable material and honest workmanship. When it is further recalled that our chief heirlooms from the former generations are tables and chairs and bureaus, it will appear that it is our duty to hand down to our children furniture of similar durability and honest quality.

Therefore, money spent for good furniture may be considered as a permanent investment whose returns are comfort and satisfaction in the present, and loving remembrance in the days to come.

So often is the artistic beauty of a house destroyed by a bad selection and arrangement of furniture and choice of inharmonious decorations, that many architects are coming to advise, and even dictate, the style of everything that goes into the house. Thus Colonial furniture is prescribed for a residence in Colonial style, Mission furniture for Mission architecture, etc. There is a corresponding movement among makers of artistic furniture to plan houses suited to their particular styles. Thus "Craftsman" houses and "Craftsman" furniture are designed by the same business interest.

Since, however, the average American home is something of a composite in architectural design, the housekeeper may be permitted to exercise her taste in making selections from the infinite variety of styles of furniture that are offered her by the manufacturers of the country.

It is advisable, however, that the furniture in each room be in harmony.

Let us briefly examine the articles of furniture and styles of decoration appropriate for the several rooms.

The hall, now often the smallest, most ill-considered part of the house, was once its chief glory. In the old days in England, and, indeed, in America, the word was used as synonymous with the mansion, as Bracebridge Hall, Haddon Hall, etc. It was the largest apartment, the center of family and social life. Here the inmates and their guests feasted and danced and sang. Gradually it was divided off into rooms for specific purposes, until now in general practice it has narrowed down to a mere vestibule or entrance to the other rooms, with only those articles of furniture in it which are useful to the one coming in or going out of the house, combination stands with mirror, pins for hanging up hats and overcoats, umbrella holder, a chair or so, or a settee for the guest awaiting reception, etc. Often the chair or settee is of the most uncomfortable design, conspiring with the narrow quarters to make the visitor's impression of the house and its inmates a very disagreeable one. If s.p.a.ce is lacking to make the hall a comfortable and pleasing room, it should be abolished, and the visitor, if a social one, taken at once to the parlor, and if a business one, to the living-room.

Where, however, size permits it, the hall should be made the most attractive part of the house. Here is the proper place for a "Grandfather's Clock," a rug or so of artistic design, and a jardiniere holding growing plants or flowers. The wallpaper should be simple and dignified in design, but of cheerful tone. Some shade of red is always appropriate. Remember in choosing decorations that the colors of the spectrum--violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red--run the gamut of emotive influence from depression to exhilaration. Violet and indigo lower the spirits, blue and green hold them in peaceful equilibrium, yellow begins to cheer them, and orange and red excite them.

However, the color scheme of a hall is largely dependent upon the wood-finish, because of the amount of this shown in the stairs.

Dark red is a very suitable color for the stair-carpet. The best way to fasten this is by a recent invisible contrivance which goes underneath the material. Bra.s.s rods are ornamental, rather too much so, and carpet tacks are provoking, both in putting down and taking up the carpet.

Where the hall and stairway are wide and room-like, pictures should be hung on the walls, interesting in subject and cheerful in decorative tone. The presence of the stairway, especially if this is broken by a landing, permits quite a variety of arrangement. The line of ascent should be followed only approximately. Remember that it is a fundamental law of art always to suggest a set idea, but never to follow it; to have a rule in mind, and then play about it rather than strictly pursue it.